File f78 - Rice, Christine Elizabeth

File consists of a recording of Christine Rice. Topics of the conversation include childhood recollection of stove-heated country school (Lanark County). Great-grandfather's forced enrolment in navy, emigration from Dublin; wounds incurred in War of 1812, reward of good farm in Drummond County. Rice family library, bookishness; uncle as first editor of Perth Courier. Horse-and-cutter winter rides to Perth Collegiate, thumbed sleigh-rides. WWI plan whereby students quitting school to do farmwork were automatically awarded junior matriculation. Normal school attendance, 1920; short spell teaching. Extramural work from Queen's to qualify as high school teacher; regular attendance 1923-27. Mother's approval of academic ambition (father's death in 1918). Summer work in Halifax fisheries. Counsel from Queen's professor not to follow her preference for Physics, but to enroll in Biology, Chemistry as more eligible, suitable fields for women. Decision to teach in lieu of anything more compatible; desire to support self, widowed mother. Residence in Ban Righ the year it opened. Card games, dances; skating exercise to clear the head before exams; showshoeing. Seminal philosophy course with Reid MacCallum, 'Philosophy as affected by Science'; subject's fascination with atomic theory, subtleties of probability and statistics compared with cut-and-dried mechanistic world-view. Philosophy as excellent preparation for the research scientist, 'to get away from the notion that facts are facts'. Subject's readings in philosophy; current interest in Canadian novel as means of comparing French Canadians and English Canadians. Opinion that, allowing for change, Canada should remain unified; similar reactions of both cultures (though French Canadians may think faster). Subject's medal in Biology. Smelly maritime bacterial study of lobster decomposition under Dr. Macleod (associate of Drs. Banting, Best). PhD work in tuberculosis research, BCG vaccine (completed in 1931) broken by year's research in immunology, diagnosis (Dept. of Health, Albany).//Discrimination against subject as PhD student by MD students at U. of T. Subject's ambition, Iimited to research: observation of how good researchers are lured, pushed into administrative work; self-deception of administrators who think they will find time for research sideline. Administrative interference in research-work: pressure from grant councils to publish prematurely; pressure to state in applications what one will not know till one concludes research. Taxpayers' clamour for results; need for both pure and applied science; outstanding imaginative abilities needed for basic research. Subject's 13-year period in Public Health work, Albany; return to Kingston (1943) to research immunizing agents ('against things the Germans didn't use, but might have used') for Dept. of National Defence, Division of Bacteriological Welfare. Return to Albany (1945) for year's research into Influenza B virus; realisation one should take out citizenship in country one resides in; feeling of irrefutable Canadian identity, return to Canada. Work in Health of Animals Division, Dept. of Agriculture. Subject's key paper on imperfect applicability of human immunology research findings to animal species, and vice versa; danger of generalizations made from animal research findings (e.g. cancer research); problems of relative dosage, susceptibilities; thalidimide scandal. Memories of Nazi preparations in Freiburg during early 1930s: economic depression; manipulation of unemployed youth into feeling useful, happy solidarity; Hitler's pathological abuse of power; subject's feeling that power corrupts even the good man. Retirement, 1967. Agricultural fellowship to study cattle brucellosis in New Zealand; work teaching results to students in Seoul, Korea on return trip. Retirement projects in Perth: gardening, budget-work for local senior citizens' centre. //Subject's feeling as female professional of having to produce more than male colleagues. Once-a-year conference attendance; delegation of extra conferences to junior colleagues, partly for their benefit, partly through irritation at wasted time; opinion that this was a professional mistake. Subject as President, Perth Queen's Alumni; Alumni quarter-yearly programmes. McMartin House Senior Citizens' centre: grant applications; building reconstruction by Heritage Foundation; crafts, social activities; membership drive, desire for young members as well as old, for benefit of all generations; income from quilting activities; expensive utilities budget, dependence on grants. Problem of running drop-in centre for people who won't drop in. Desire that McMartin gardening club develop into branch of horticultural society. McMartin House finances, rental income. Previous membership in the University Women's Club. Leisure activities; homework keeping up with scientific literature; study, work, as subject's major lifelong interests. Dislike of senior citizens' party 'hub-bub'; hearing difficulties as socially inhibiting factor in aged. Secure position in Albany during Depression; reminiscences of real estate bargains, raiIroad transients. Varying wisdom of regional governments in dealing with Depression: dismissal of specialists during economic crisis later regretted during WWII.